Jammu and Kashmir Security has always been instrumental in helping sports thrive in the valley and the man who has been responsible for the state of affairs is SSP Rupender K Chalotra. He leads sports for Security in the Valley and has received many a gallantry awards for his services. He has been honoured with Sher-E-Kashmir Award, Police Medal for Gallantry services, amongst others.
He spoke at length with Indian Sports News about sports in Valley and more…
Excerpts
ISN: What does sport mean to you?
Rupinder: Sport is an integral part of the society. For me more than just recreational activity or career, I feel the roots of sports go deep down. Sport teaches us discipline, makes us united and helps us learn leadership qualities. Sports help in eradicating social stigmas and make us a responsible citizen of the country. So more me sports does all this us and that is why it is such an integral part of our life.
ISN: Talking about sports, how much do you think Security Services is doing for sports in Jammu and Kashmir?
Rupinder: We have been helping the sports since a very long time now. We have a fund called Sadbhawana under which we fund different tournaments across Jammu and Kashmir. We already have few renowned tournament and there are few more in the pipeline. We are aiming to start franchisee based leagues in J&K to take sports to the next level.
ISN: Since you have been associated with sports for so long could you please tell me why is that sports has not been able to cultivate as culture in our country?
Rupinder: We Indians have a tendency of not sending our children into sports thinking that it will not take us anywhere. But now with different PSU’s and armed forces recruiting sportspersons, people have now started considering sports as a career. Everything needs a starts and it has already begun. Hope that in coming days things will change as far as sports in concerned.
ISN: You are saying that people are changing their attitude towards sports but then the way Vijay Kumar had to ask for promotion even after making India proud, you think people will get motivated?
Rupinder: Yes obviously incidents like this put the image of sports down. India does not have many sportsperson due to lack of motivation, but then this is due to the present situation. Things are changing and in coming years I am sure that incidents like this will not take place.
ISN: Recruitments in sports quota always sees lot of malpractices happening where often people with merit are overlooked due to some influential candidates. So how clean do you think your recruitment process is?
Rupinder: Well it is true but then in security services the concept of blue eyed boy does not exist. We select sportsperson according to the merit and make it a strong point to avoid malpractices with the selection procedure.
.By Samikshan Dutta Choudhary
